The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 28, 1927, Page 2

Page Two THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, MARCH 28, 1927 PENNSYLVANIA SEDITION CASE AGAIN QUASHED Company Police Arrest Same Workers Thrice PITTSBURGH, PA. March 2 The Woodlawn sedition c in which members of the Workers Party were char, with violation of the Flynn anti-sedition law, has been quashed, for the second time. This case arose as a result of the raid on three houses in Woodlawn on Armistice Day, when eight men were arrested, put behind iron bars, charged with violation of the Flyn anti-sedition | act and then released under $1,000 | bail each, The raid was conducted | under the guidance of H. G. Mauk, | chief of Jones & Laughlin police. Through the efforts of the at- torneys George J. Shaffer and H. H. | Wilson, representing the International | Labor Defense and the American Civil Liberties Union, the ca was dis- missed before it ever came before the grand jury. The Jones & Laugt could not rest uged td get out an the arrest of the same eight men practically on the same charge. Sub- | sequent to that the bail of three of the defendants, Pete Muselin, Milan Res- etar and Tom Zima was raised from $1000 to $5000, Thrown Out of Court This was before the case was sub- mijted to the grand jury for action. | The men were f ly indieted by the | grand jury on 3 ch 15 and the case was set fora hearing in Beaver; Ceunty court for March 28th. Due to efforts of the attorneys of the ILD) and the American Civil Liberties | Union the case was again quashed. | The Armistice Day raids took place in revenge against several workers of Woodlawn who dared to sue the chief | if police of Aliquippa for $10,000 Jamages for an illegal arrest on July } £7, Aliquippa is another town owned and controlled by the Jones & Laugh- | lin. interests. More Currents At the same time, two Hungarian | workers were recently arrested in Woodlawn and charged with violation »f the sarte Flynn Anti-Sedition Act. The case ef John Maki who was ar- | ested in Monessen for distributing ‘Hands off China Leaflets” was set- led in court when John Maki paid $15 fine. While the case of John Maki was -onsidered in the Monessen court, John Kaspar of East Pittsburgh was arrested while distributing Teatlets lice, how- 2 and man- rrant for By ROBERT MITCHELL ? Organize the Traction Workers ARTICLE XII——THE 1916 STRIKE; WHY IT FAILED { {session taken from them. Men Divided. thrown into jail and every bit of pos- ( His. testimony was so contradictory,’ jand manifestly false that Cohen, the FILM SHEET HAS ‘TROTSKY SCREEN | It is important here to pause for| a moment to note more carefully. the} Accordingly, when the nature ‘of the condition against which|spread over the system, the motor-|Tepeatedly on the stand. Mr. Shonts Quackenbush was contending when| men, one of the most important divi-| made a much better witness. He he announced, “We are going to the|sions of the industry, remained aloof.| joked continuously at their success mat with this thing’, What were|This was the greatest blow the strike |’? “putting it over on” the Amalgi the men fighting for; what hours| received, Not only had the Interbor- | mated. The Company Union, he ia were they working; what pay were|ough succeeded in outwitting the ferred to as the “ontente cordiale they receiving? | Amalgamated officials but through | between the company and the men. The Interborough in order to ward/| trickery, double-dealing and fraud it} Nothing, of curse, came of the off the rising tide of organization|had accomplished its aim of dividing | hearing. Another evidence that we during the month of July had granted | the men, . courts and investigating be datngesai eh three successive increases of pay.| The Amalgamated officers must the capitalist class are but aly Ar The process of organization, as we/|accept responsibility for this ‘situ- for concealing the true nature of its have seen did not on that account| ation for the reason that leaders can-| Power! The Interborough merely de- stop. In spite of these increases the|not be excused for the kind of erim- fied its decision to arbitrate the wage of the men was still under the|inal negligence which they should | Strike. subsistence level. |have avoided, Besides the men had| | All Labor Interested. — Al Underpaid. |heen ready and anxious to act at a| The extrdme interest aroused by The Interborough at the time em-|time when the situation could un-| the strike forced organized labor. to ployed 634 motormen who received |doubtedly still have been saved. | take @ stand on the isgues Sexelvels the hugh salary of $3.67 per day of| Police Take Part. j Agitation began for a general sym- | attorney of the public service com- walkout} mission, proved that Hedley had lied 10 hours, 7 days a week; 3180 con- ductors and guards received $2 per day for a twelve hour day, 7 days a week, 84 hours, no time off; 710 ticket agents received $2.26 per day 7 days per week, 84 hours; 888 gate- men received $1.90 per day, 12 hours per day, 7 days per week; 386 sta- tion porters received $1.77 per day 12 hours per day, 7 days per week. Many of the men are still working these hours at the present time un- der a Slightly improved wage. Such conditions would have driven any group of workers to revolt. The! strength and enthusiasm of their} mass energy would have led them to! victery in spite of all obstacles and| mistakes if it had not been for one} jbelled at the company’ | The strike began in all its inten- \sity. At first no trains whatever were sent out. But soon with police protection and wire caging about the motorihen’s booths, a few of the trains ventured forth. ‘The strike- breakers began to play their part as usual in Interborough procedure. They had been quartered and fed at Weehawken, N. J., during the few weeks of preparation for the Inter- | boreugh’s second great union smash- Some of the finks re- ’s failure to live up to its agreement with them to pay them in full for the period of waiting. The agreement had been, $2.50 per day for the period preceding strike ing crusade. thing: On August 7th by 1 p. m./duty and $5.00 per day for the term the Interborough was as dead as the! of actual service. The Interborough | proverbial door nail, The tie-up was| double crossed even the strike break- | complete—but the motormen did not! ers and finks! In a fight which took | come out! |place at one of the agencies, a fink! Tricked Motormen. was murdered, Nothing was done to The explanation of this fact gives; place responsibility for the crime, an insight into the double dealing and knavery of the Interborough! which no other description can re-| veal. In the process of preparing for the! or less serious accident. On the sec-| orough had used|ond day of the strike a fink motor-j strike the Interb: trickery, intimidation and fraud to induce same of the men to sign the| “yellow-dog” contracts; it had used| gunmen to compel men to join the | however. Life was cheap during the 1916 strike! Accidents Multiply. Every day saw a wreck, or a more man killed two people and injured 13 others. Several more were crippled for life and 14 injured the next day in a wreck on the “L”, Interborough “Brotherhood”; but even worse W@S/thugs and gunmen overran the city its method of deceiving the motor-|beating up and knifing the strikers. men. a ers |The police beat up and rode down In order to do this it first went to| several East Side gatherings of the pathetic strike on the part of the STAR, WITH PAY Arkansawyers Seriously + Debate the Salary By THURBER LEWIS. guy Trotsky would have been a lot better off if he’d have stuck to the | movies,” and as the Speaker, sitting next to me in the sun in front of what goes as a hotel in Arkansas, spit some essence of natural leaf at a prowling razor-back, I sat back and | confirmed in my mind that there are jas many half-wits in the stall as I | had ‘thot. My neighbor settled back in his chair and began thumbing the pages lof his Saturday Evening Post with the further observation, “He might have been a star now pulling down a whole labor movement of New York, The labor officials of the city did not take this agitation s¢ ously and| | at first went along with | | To thejr surprise thé movement} | gained unexpected momentum. One} after another of the unions, forced by | the pressure of the rank and file} voted to join the sympathetic strike, | For a time it seemed as if such a | general walkout would take pla¢e. |Mayor Mitchell showed his true }eolors by threatening to call the | militia. General Strike Betrayed. Then the forces behind the scenes began their deadly operations. One |after another of the labor officials | began to advise against such drastic measures. “Hesitant” Hugh Frayne openly stated that “a general strike may not be necessary after all”. Sam} Gompers came on from Washington to deliver an address to the machin- ists. In the course of his speech he “No doubt, you would like to| jhave me speak about the traction| strike, but at this time it would be! better to stick to my subject’. As a} result, the sympathetic strike which could still have saved the situation was likewise sabotaged. Battle Ends. The struggle of the traction work- ers continued with declining vigor; the combined forces against the men,! the lack of ‘an adequate leadership which would fight the battle along {the correct class lines, the increasing said: | | } | fat salary ’stead of runnin’.a country bigger’n our’n.” “Where did you get all the dope on Trotsky, brother?” I asked, Along With Norma, “Here it is, right here,” and he turned back the pages of the “Post” and ghowed me a picture. The reproduction I saw was part) of a double page spread under the} caption “Close-ups,” written for Norma Talmadge, veteran- silver- sheet heroine. It was a scene from a 1912 picture entitled, “My official wife.” Clara Kimball Young, idol of the nickolodeon days, is shown sur- rounded by a group of the usual movie Russians. Underneath you are told that the unimposing looking gen- tleman with the full Van Dyke at the lextreme right is none other than Leon Trotsky. “Little Dreaming.” “Close Ups,” I found on further in-| spection, is a sort of biography of) MceGEHEE, Ark,, March 27.—“That |° | (Glasgow Votes Not to | Feed King and Queen he ro SENATOR NORRIS LAYS. WARLIKE ACTS OF CALVIN Opposes the President On Mexico, Nicaragua WASHINGTON, March 27 (FP).— Sen. Geo. W. Norris, leader of the pro- gressive group in congress, has been the first to sepak out dgainst the war- making program of the Coolidge ad- ministration in Latin American, indi- eated by the sale of arms by the United States government to Adolfo Diaz, its puppet president in Nica- ragua, znd by the ending of the treaty against smuggling arms into Mexico. “The action of the president and secretary of state,” said Norris, “is shocking to every peace-loving. citizen in civilization, The action in regard to Mexico is notice to those who want to overthrow the Mexican government that they owill have a free hand in shipping there from ovr country all the arms and ammunition that may be needed. | Seat a New Czar “Tf the president and secertary of state without consent of eongress can sell guns and ammunitions of war to Diaz to keep him in power in Nica- ragua, there is no reason why they could not sell some of our battleships to Mussolini; there is no reason why |they could not put a ezar on the throne in Russia and sell him, in.time, on his promissory note, the cannons and guns now belonging to our govern- ment.” Sen. Borah, meeting the press cor- | | | King’ George and Queen Mary, England’s royal pair, get some fun out of life by touring the country and attending banquets provided for them at public expense by various municipalities. Labor members of the Glasgow city council put a crimp respondents daily, has not ventured to denounce the administration’s acts, although he considers them in viola- tio nof the senate resolution asking for friendly arbitration of the oil |tands dispute with Mexico. Norma’s film career. Whoever wrote| in one of their plans by voting not | graphs of scenes from his production, it for her has the following to say about Trotsky’s screen experience: | “Mr. Young (Clara Kimball’s hub- by), still has a number of photo- to spend a penny of the city’s money | on any entertainment for them on their trip to Scotland’ next summer, “My Officiol Wife,” in which Leon Trotsky, then known as Mr. Bron-| stein, played one of the Russians.; Little did any of us dream that Trot- sky would one day play a more sen-! sational role in the history of the! : UNION HEADS TO Denver Labor “asks FIX AUTO LABOR Raise In Its Pay JURISDICTIONS DENVER, March 28 (FP).—A the switchmen. A switchman is: alworkers. Allin all it was a time of | Neds, % the men all proved too much | world than anything the most crea-| Praise of $1 a day from the present $5 s tive imagination could have invented| tate for municipal labor will be re- | WASHINGTON, (FP).—Executives for the screen.” |quested of the voters at the city elec- \of all international unions claiming I mentally took back'my observa-| tion May 17 by the Denver City Em- | jurisdiction over parts of the motor | | worker who is learning the motor- man’s job.- These switchmen were| first of all told that if they went on| strike, they especially would never! get back inasmuch as any unskilled worker would be able to learn their work in a few days. In addition wivertising the film “Breaking |some of them were told that if they | Chains.” The leaflets were confiscat-/ remained “loyal” they could immedi- sd and Kaspar was released on $25 | ately be made motormen. This won strenuous “law and order”. No less interesting are a number of, other developments which marked | the progress of the strike. Consider- able violence was in evidence at all times. Naturally the company sought to prove that the leaders were behind it. One case of dynamiting was the outstanding feature of the strike. tail, The case was then dismissed by | the Burgess. CURRENT — EVENTS (Continued from Page One) day without the probability of some nosey power butting in on a private civil war. In a few days the voters will select their choice of the two avils, William Hale Thompson and | William E. Dever. Thompson is more broadminded than Dever. His slogan is: “America First,” whereas Dever) stating that thousands of juorneymen since victory is usually on the side of the heaviest artillery we believe the gangsters will win. | * * CAUSE the Interstate Commerce Commission rejected the plans of the Van Sweringen brothers to con- solidate five eastern railroads into a single system and denied Henry Ford authority to consolidate two rail- roads, the Herald-Tribune leaps to} the conclusioi# that dollars.do not) Nothing was ever proven against the |men but they were condemned never- | theless, One of them later died on Blackwell’s Island of pneumonia had been completed, the Interborough | while serving his sentence, went to the most likely motormen “Pre ”, = Lye them that the switchmen | Early in gen wget MO were | ‘ad all signed up to take over the mo-| made to have the public service com- | tormen’s jobs when they walked out. | mission intercede. At first the Inter- | hae man ee dereives and upon | borough defied the commission but ques! anded over their union! later Shonts and. Hedley, president | cards, These cards were used by the! and vice president respectively of the bilgi spoons of _Sepercnests 3e [compe tiaacaec ey testify at the get other motormen to sign over. In| hearing. en Hedley was con r a few days practically all the motor-| ted with the evidence of. his trickery men had been made to sign the “yel- in violating the agreement with the low-dog” contract. A | Amalgamated and the public service, | _ Then they were called into the of- i he was not in the least put out, “For | fice again and informed that if they | thirty years”, he explained, “I have violated the contract they would be! been an advocate of preparedness”. over some of the switchmen. Played Against Each Other. When the task with the switchmen |for them. Besides the failure of | organized labor to support the strike sufficiently, and especially its failure |to carry out the plans of the general strike after it had ae the hopes of the traction w rs, actually broke the back of the strile. All through the summer the con- test continued, the men fighting stub- bornly and the company gradually raising its degree of service with the aid of the strike breakers under po- lice protection. Christmas of that year still found the men holding out id clear that the battle was 1 ry for the workers is not won in a day. Most frequently there are trying defeats along the way. The lessons of defeat are not learned as quickly and as thoroughly as one might hope. The Interborough trac- tion workers had still another defeat to sustain before they could begin to build on a solid foundation, Such an event was the last 1926 strike. But no strikes are ever lost as we shall see. Each battle takes its place in the struggle leading to final vic- tory! tee for democracy in trade unions, here, declared that in spite of the | losses in the ranks of the miners’ | Pittsburg Thugs On Job Ready for Big Coal Strike PITTSBURG, |union caused by the misleadership of | the Lewis machine, the strike will be | heroically carried thru by the rank | March and file. 27.—Pitts- Henry Ford to Testify, Immune to Exposure (Continued from Page One) a most severe cross examination, say the attorneys for the inventor of dominate the policies of this govern- | burg, center of the bitterest exploita- ment and its sub-committees. Rash/|tion of labor in America, is getting conclusion! The explanation of this|*eady for an intensified reign of the | action of the chamber of commeree | terror that stalked through the val- is to be found in the conflicting in-|leys in 1919 and 1922. Some of the terests of the great banking groups | big union coal outfits plan to con- ‘that contro! the railroads. When | tinue production on a non-union basis they bury the hatchet the commerce | after April 1, To this end “ranks commission will place no more ee ie and ess Laid gence ; ir way. |paid by the operators are being in- oe ‘ts ig'd iy * | creased,” reports the Wall Street \ SSOLINI has added “Extensive installations of scalp to his collection of tro- another | Journal, | flood lights are being made to reduce phies taken from the Italian anat-|the possibility -of night attacks on omy. After banning spaghetti, short| properties.” } skirts and bobbed hair, one would| Militant labor has been derelict in | think than even such a glutton for not establishing a powerful weekly work as Benito would call it a day|paper in the important Pittsburg and declare another war, for recrea-| steel and coal district. While the tion. But no. He refuses to play.|editors of such a paper can expect He insists on saving the people daily| cracked heads and ruined presses not from themselves. He has now placed | only from the brutal anti-union em- a ban on art, science and literature, | ployers there but from the bought We warn the hurdy-gurdy man that/|and paid for corrupt trade union of- “When the Lewis administration |“The Ford System”. It is expected, failed to support the hundred thou-|however, that Senator Jim Reed, sand coke region strikers during the |chief of consul for Ford, will rest on last walk out, and left them to their|his publicity already gained, and fate, altho they, unorganized, had | leave this routine job to Stewart Han- struck to aid the union and to become | ley, former Detroit judge. a part of < he served notice on the Repeats Charge. operators that it was perfectly safe . Dear' for them to begin their inroads into ho ly — Fava eerie tne the union fields,” said Brophy. iterated some of the charges against “Since the signing of the Jackson-|Sapiro’s handling of “cooperatives”, ville agreement the United Mine|and adds a long-winded defense of Workers of America has lost 13,000| religious prejudice. It says about dues-paying members, and has also|Sapiro’s financial deals: lost, in some measure, its hold on its} “Under the Sapiro plan of eoopera- own membership,” declared Brophy, | tive’ marketing organizations, farm- Brophy, who lost the presidency of |ers or growers, in whatever locality the United Mine Workers of America| an - association was formed, signed at the last election only as a result|contracts binding themselves to de- of the sleight-of-hand tactics of the|liver their entire crop output to the Lewis machine, asserted that since] association over a fixed period of the conclusion of that agreement dis- | years, the association to sell the pro- integration has resulted all along the | ducts, paying the farmer after deduc- line in the bituminous industry. ting all operating and selling ex- his time will come. |ficaldom, the job has to be done} Lae, sooner or later. | NOTHER columnist on another law relieves the presecuting attor can men of wealth dodge the little | irritations incidental to furnishing a} home by calling in an interior decor- ator and giving him carte blanche to| go ahead and decorate, money being | the last thing he should worry about. | When the job ia finished, we are told, | a wealthy man may be set back $100,000. All men are surely free and equal in the United states. Sure there is nothing to stop the wage) slave who helps produce the wealth | of the country from leaving his $5 a ‘week room for another when the bed bugs get too familiar. : THE DAILY WORKER AY tHE NEWSSTANDS ‘Coal Barons Fail West Va. Parley the life and future of their union will wage the battle without strike action from other parts of the country un- less the activities of the progressive and militant sections is successful in bringing, out the unorganized West Virginia and Kentucky fields, The far-sighted members of the union have for the past year been agitating for propaganda and an organizing cam- paign among Shase mine * Brophy Speaks On Strike. Brophy, progressive miners’ hn oN ee: fore the commit- \ e | . Tn declaring that the nationaliza- | tion of the eoal industry is the only alternative to the present chaotic con- dition, Brophy declared that the mine operators squander not only coal as a result of their incompetence and -barbaric methods of competion, but also waste human life. 25,000 min- ers are killed at their work in the mines of the United States each year,” he said, the number of Great Britain.” The progressive leader said that he favored democracy in the trade unions not because he was under any illusion that it: would create a state of perfection, but because “it pro- vides the only chance for growth and changes for the best interests of the ees” pense, It was claimed for the plan that through this form of coopera- tive marketing, prices eould he bet- ter controlled and that the producers would receive giater return for his products, Declares Plait Disastrous. “Investigation of the Sapiro plan by The Dearborn Independent showed just the reverse, With few excep- the Sapiro plan of cooperative mar- keting resulted disastrously for the producers. - “Following the publication of these stories, Mr. Sapiro in 1925 filed his suit for libel.” BUY THE DAILY WORKER AT THE NEWSSTANDS tion about moronity in Arkansas and} proceeded to some figuring. The pic-| ture referred to, judging from the text of the stery, must have been produced around about 1912. As 1| recall, Trotsky came to the United! States after the war began, in fact! as late as 1917, I believe, but cer- tainly not before 1914, What’s more, the “super” in the photo looks like Trotsky only as regards his beard. Leon is a strapping fellow. The diplomatic appearing conspirater “at! the extreme right” is not only of or- dinary stature—but he’s bald. Trot- sky's shock of hair is too well known. Hollywood Scream. I am sure the Arkansas turned the tables on me and made a little men- tal reservation of his own when he heard we laugh to scare the razor- back out of his gumbo bath. It was the issue of the Post for March 26th and anyone interested to observe for himself the lengths to which the Hollywood publicity hounds will go. and the facility with which Mr. Curtis’ Post falls for the ob- viously spurious will find Comrade Trotsky at the extreme right on page 26 of that number. Six Cents Is Share | Of Toilers In Steel | . Trust’s Prosperity U. 8, Steel common stockholders are to get a 40 per cent stock divi- dend, whose eash value on each share at present rating is $114. Each $100 share is now valued at $285 and with the 40 per cent extra thrown in, will be worth $399 or four times its nor- mal value. Contrast with this the dividend in- crease that the U, S, Steel worker got last year in the shape of an increased wage over 1925. It was exactly six cents a day. His average wage in 1926 was $6.88 a day and last year it jumped (!) to $5.94, And at that Wallprol places little reliance in the steel trust’s figures on wages. Just how the “average” was computed would make an interesting study in itself. Just Soaked! The original $100 steel trust share of common stock was outrageously watered and actually represented but a fraction of that amount in invested capital, But now it is worth $400, In one year it leaped in value by $114 while the workers’ wages went up 6 cents! That is not all by a long shot, The steel worker averages $1.06 less a day now than in 1920, on the trust’s ployes’ Union, A strong argument) vehicle industry took part in a con- for the boost is that much of the ference in the executive council room labor, particularly in the park sys-| at American Federation of Labor tem, is employed only part of the! headquarters on March 24 to consider year. | ways and means of organizing the | 500,000 or more workers in the auto- | mobile, truck and accessories plants Retail Clerks Get §1 Increase. BELLEVILLE, Ill] (PP).—Over 800 retail clerks are benefited by a 2-year union agreement, carrying $1 a week increase and an hour less on Saturdays, Rail Telegraphers Enroll 351 New Members. ST. LOUIS (FP).—The Order or Railroad Telegraphers enrolled 351 new members in February. Latin American Book, “The Bird of Prey,” Raps Ameri¢an Eagle WASHINGTON — (FP) — From Buenos Aires there has arrived in Washington an afivertising poster | for a new book, a best seller in Latin America, called “The Bird of Prey.” This bird is the American eagle. The beok recites the story of Ameri- can armed aggressions in Latin America—in Mexico, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republie, and alleged plans for interyention in other countries in this hemisphere. Investigators just returned from South America say that large finan- cial deals with American firms have recently been rejected by the gov- ernments of Colombia and Vene- zuela, with the explanation that public opinion in Latin America will not now tolerate any conces- sions to big business in the United States for fear that American armed forces may follow the dollars. own figures. Oh, what a good strong union would do to those contrasts, And what a good strong Communist party can do to the whole rotten set- “That is three times | tions, the investigation disclosed that|yp in the steel industry where the owners get literally everything, leay- ing to the producers only the ti, most miserable existence. ROME, March 27.—The Fascist militia was increased to 880,000 today under the authorization of Premier Mussolini View of the Steamer of the United States and Canada, Jurisdictional Fights, This was the second such meeting held since the A. F. of L. convention at Detroit last October ordered that |} a campaign be launched to unionize | these workers. At the first gather- | inig it appeared that some unions | were indifferent, because of jurisdic- | tional claims, to the project of ‘creat- ing an industrial union of automobile | workers. The executive council of the A. F. of L. then asked the several unions’_ executives to secure consent from their executive boards for surrender of jurisdiction, at least until all the automobile plants should be made safe for labor unionism, It was sug- gested that the allocation of the new recruits to the various trade unions could be taken up afterward. Try To Settle. Studies have meanwhile been made by the A. F. of L. research depart- ment as to just what labor processes are involved in the industry, and how these numerous operations, per- formed generally in connection with new and complicated machinery, may be classed as to trade, This problem of decidiig whether a Ford or General Motors employe is a machinist or a sheet metal worker or a common laborer is the most. dif- ficult one with which the jurisdie- tional experts have had to deal, The employe may be shifted from the one class to another and from that to a third within a brief time. BUY THE DAILY WORKER AT THE NEWSSTANDS | a of Detroit ILI,” liner Grea! season 0} wo ahead of the pen Foy Ng . usual. With numerous heavy fee than season, traffic on the Great Cael Prse Phote)